The quality of EPI image is intrinsically hindered by Nyquist ghost and geometric distortion which are commonly handled by a 1D non-phase encoded reference and a field map based corrections, respectively. In some cases, a 2D phase reference is required, but scan time is increased. The geometric-mismatch between EPI and coil sensitivities is another concern. Here, the 2D phase correction (without prolonging scan time) and the distortion correction are integrated into a single forward operator rather than considering them consecutively. The results show that the stable reduction in Nyquist ghosting and distortion can improve the tSNR of EPI time series.
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